• Stephan Dorschner and Dorothee Bauernschmidt.
• Georg-Streiter-Institut für Pflegewissenschaft der Ernst-Abbe-Fachhochschule Jena.
• Pflege. 2014 Aug 1; 27 (4): 257-67.

BackgroundIn Germany, men participate more and more in the extensive process of caring for their relatives. The ongoing discourse in nursing sciences, however, reflects poorly on this increasing number of male principal caregivers.AimObjective of the present study is to analyse the following questions, with focus on caring husbands: Firstly, how do caring husbands experience caring for their wives after stroke? And secondly, how do they organise daily life?MethodNarrative interviews with ten caring husbands were conducted. Analysis was performed using a modified phenomenological-interpretative approach as described by Diekelmann (1992).ResultsSix central issues evolved: "I never thought something like that'd happen to us …" (disease as acute crisis); "I see her just the way she was when we first met …" (relationship); "… since then I got her in home care." (care); "… this work, it's never been easy" (work and burden); "This new situation, well, you've got to adapt …" (adaptation); "… because I do need some time for myself!" (support and relief). "Being responsible" emerged as a constitutive pattern, according to which caring husbands perceive their own life situation.ConclusionProfessional nurses should take this constitutive pattern seriously and should align their work to it when collaborating with male principal care givers. For this purpose, further research is needed to develop new approaches to this special situation and its implications.

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